The search engine major Google was taken by surprise when the YouTube advertising crisis intensified and assumed a proportion that was much more than what it had ascertained. Although, almost two weeks have gone by when the crisis first struck roots, yet the hue and cry has not died down altogether. So, what was all the hue and cry all about? Surprsingly, the well established brands found out to their horror and utmost disappointment that just adjacent to their advertisement banners there were hate and controversial videos posted, which created a lot of furor in the virtual world.

Is Google credibility at stake?

This is a testing time for the search engine giant. In fact, more than the credibility of Google, the future prospects and dependability of AI or Artificial Intelligence is being questioned. Experts are of the opinion that the efficacy of Artificial Intelligence was questionable and it is quite certain from the recent outcome that this technology is still not up to the mark.

The aftermath

What followed this crisis? It was observed that as expected and feared, a number of corporate brands instantly stopped pouring in their money on the search engine major. What irked the investors was that why would YouTube advertise on their network brands that were posted adjacent to videos that depict violence, hatred, and racism. Some of the well known brands that had found their advertisements adjacent to the hate videos included companies that included the following-

• AXA SA, Germany

• Range Rover vehicles, South Africa

• Total SA, France

• Tradera Sweden

• Skopunkten

The main question that was being raised about the placement of advertisement videos next to the hate videos was that the “quality assurance” and “brand safety” reputation was at stake for the above mentioned companies. Although Google interfered when the arguments were on but couldn’t take the situation into its stride.

Alphabet Inc, is however, planning to launch a new process/system wherein the quality of the service being offered for posting videos can be verified by companies that are planning to post their advertisement videos. To the utter dismay of the parent company of Google, Alphabet Inc, and also of the search engine major, the parent company is slated to lose a whopping 750 million dollars of revenue due to this unexpected event. This was stated by Nomura Instinet after detailed analysis of the situation.

Artificial Intelligence to the rescue

Soon after the crisis hit the virtual world of video advertisement, the search engine major started to employ the technology of Artificial Intelligence tools to decode YouTube’s video library. It has employed a technique known as “machine learning” in order to improve its services as well as products. This tool is specifically based on the technology of Artificial Intelligence. Few of the functionalities that are being reviewed by Google essentially include the likes of the following-

• Categorization of videos

• Flagging of content

• Filtering content

As per expert advice, the 3 above mentioned aspects are areas that have not been emphasized much by the search engine giant.

According to experts if the search engine giant intends to completely do away with the practice of posting online advertisements adjacent to hate videos and controversial videos, it has to set things right as far as Artificial Intelligence tools are concerned. Although, this is a task that has been overlooked most of the time, fixing these issues both “robotically” as well as doing away with human errors is the need of the hour.

As of now, it is being ascertained that there are no further instances of online advertisements being posted besides hate videos or videos that are controversial and depict hatred and racism.